Best Havoc Macros For Me

Hello all, I’m Sassbearilla and started using GS:E a couple weeks ago once I came back to WoW. I got a keyboard that can do macros, tried to do it through my keyboard, but soon realized GS:E was much better, and with a keyboard that can repeat key presses, it’s even better. I used this forum to help optimize my Havoc macros and see a lot of people are asking about macros, so I thought I’d just make a post about the macros I’ve settled on after trying a bunch of experimentation.

Keep in mind, these macros are meant to be spammed, either with a keyboard that can do macros, an addon, or tons of button pressing. They are not meant to be pressed as you need the ability. Keep that in mind, as that greatly affects the usefulness of these macros. I used to have my keyboard press the key every 1 millisecond, but I recently switched to 100 milliseconds and I think it is preferable. I have the option of providing a range of time the keyboard can repeat the button though, and I think I might try that, see how it works. But I think 1ms was too fast and it was causing the macros to not execute optimally.

using macros has greatly increased my DPS and I am surprised if I’m not at the top of the DPS charts, and if I’m not, there’s usually a good reason, such as dying too early, you’re only looking at a single fight with a single target, etc. For instance, here I get beat by a feral druid, but I was still doing 240k DPS over the whole Cenarius fight (Warcraft Logs - Combat Analysis for Warcraft and I got a slow start). I use a combination of single and multi target macros to separate things out a little.

My build (for now, tomorrow may change some things): World of Warcraft. I think World of Warcraft is probably a superior raiding build for single target DPS (bosses), but I don’t know if I would use that where AoE is preferred, such as Mythic+ where downing trash is super important.

Either way, with my current build, here are my macros:

Sequences['SingleHavoc'] = {
author="Sassbearilla@Uldum",
specID=577,
version=10,
source = "Local",
helpTxt = "Talents: 2111311",
StepFunction = GSStaticPriority,
icon='INV_MISC_QUESTIONMARK',
lang="enUS",
PreMacro=[[
/targetenemy [noharm][dead]
]],
"/cast [nochanneling] Throw Glaive",
"/cast [nochanneling] Chaos Strike",
"/cast [nochanneling] Chaos Strike",
"/cast [nochanneling] Chaos Strike",
"/cast [nochanneling] Demon's Bite",
PostMacro=[[
]],
}

Because Throw Glaive and Bloodlet are your main damage dealing abilities, we want to cast them as much as possible, so they are first. I have Chaos Strike three times because in testing, Demon’s Bite was getting cast too many times when I had enough fury to cast Chaos Strike. You can change this of course, just put the abilities on your bar so you can see what is being cast, watch your Fury bar, etc. Then, if I can’t cast those two abilities, I want to cast Demon’s Bite to generate some Fury. Easy.

Sequences['MultiHavoc'] = {
author="Sassbearilla@Uldum",
specID=577,
version=8,
source = "Local",
helpTxt = "Talents: 2111311",
StepFunction = GSStaticPriority,
icon='INV_MISC_QUESTIONMARK',
lang="enUS",
PreMacro=[[
/targetenemy [noharm][dead]
]],
"/cast [nochanneling] Blade Dance",
"/cast [nochanneling] Eye Beam",
"/cast [nochanneling] Throw Glaive",
"/cast [nochanneling] Demon's Bite",
PostMacro=[[
]],
}

With this one, I want Blade Dance to cast first because it’s up more frequently than Eye Beam and it does a ton of damage, more than Eye Beam with the right artifact abilities and number of enemies around. I’m sure it doesn’t matter too much if Eye Beam is first, feel free to play around with it, I might put Eye Beam first with the nerf to Blade Dance tomorrow. Then I want Throw Glaive, obviously, and then Demon’s Bite if nothing else. If I hold down the button for this macro and I only Demon’s Bite, I’ll continue to build Fury until I am close to reaching the max and then switch to SingleHavoc to get that Chaos Strike, then back to Multi once Blade Dance/Eye Beam is up (I use #showtooltip or #showicon Blade Dance to make sure I see when Blade Dance is up, you can do that with Eye Beam if you want). The reason I don’t include Chaos Strike here is because I found that there were too many times that Chaos Strike was being cast even though Blade Dance or Eye Beam was available and in multi target situations, they are much preferred. Macros aren’t perfect.

For lower level stuff, I include Fury of the Illidari in the post-macro or the end of the regular macro for both single and multi. For raids I do not, because I want to time those better to maximize effectiveness. Same with Fel Barrage/Chaos Strikes/Nemesis.

I use another small macro combining Darkness and Blur:

Sequences['Dark_Blur'] = {
author="Sassbearilla@Uldum",
specID=577,
version=5,
source = "Local",
helpTxt = "Talents: 1133112",
StepFunction = GSStaticPriority,
icon='INV_MISC_QUESTIONMARK',
lang="enUS",
PreMacro=[[
/targetenemy [noharm][dead]
]],
"/cast [nochanneling] Blur",
"/cast [nochanneling] Darkness",
PostMacro=[[
]],
}

My reasoning is that in a panic, I want to not die, not decide which to use or try to hit both. I would rather use both and not die than try to save one and probably die. I’m too prone to saving abilities such as this or Fury of the Illidari and in a lot of situations, it’s not worth it, especially when the cooldown isn’t too long.

I also use macros for Fel Rush, Vengeful Retreat and Demon’s Bite so that I can use [nochanneling] so they don’t interrupt an Eye Beam or something. The reason I don’t use Fel Rush and Vengeful Retreat in one of my other macros is because those are extremely situational and it would suck if it rushed me off a cliff or into some poison or something. They absolutely must be cast consciously outside of a macro, which brings me to my next point…

I think more than just using macros, you’ve got to know how to play your class. Start by Fel Rushing and Fury of the Illidari and Fel Barrage while you’ve got Momentum, then Vengeful Retreat and Fel Rush back in for another 4 seconds of increased DPS. Fel Rush whenever you have the chance diagonally if the hitbox isn’t big enough to Rush through and turn around, but save one for when you Retreat, to keep that 20% damage up as much as possible. Time your CDs with damage increases (Rush/Retreat/Chaos Blades/Nemesis). Metamorph when you’ve got a 50%+ Fury and only when Retreat/Rush is up so that you can morph, retreat, rush, and spend all the fury you get (you should be close to 100 now) while you’re morphed and have +20% damage. Consume Magic as often as you can to get free 50 fury. Do your best to time Blade Dance and Eye Beam with Rush/Retreat and as much as you can on multiple mobs.

Some say you can use Eye Beam and Blade Dance on single targets, but I don’t think it does more damage than simply using Chaos Strike unless you have First Blood or some other way to boost the damage, like Anguish of the Deceiver (artifact ability). The bigger reason to not use those abilities on single target mobs is because you want to make sure you have them for multiple targets. If you use Eye Beam on a single target, then have to fight multiple targets and have to wait 50 seconds before you can use it, you lose a lot of DPS. The opportunity cost is too high. Download Details, try both strategies, pay attention to your DPS and decide for yourself.

For a little more depth on this, with my current build, ilevel 850, Blade Dance does 108,145 physical damage and costs 35 fury and takes a couple seconds to cast. Eye Beam does 178,260 chaos damage, costs 50 fury, and takes a couple seconds to cast. Chaos Strike does 145,544 chaos damage, 40 fury, 20 of which is refunded on a critical strike. If we go by my Cenarius fight, 45% of my Chaos Strike casts were crit, so effectively, every Chaos Strike cost me 31 fury. If we break it down per fury, Blade Dance is 3090 DPF, Eye Beam is 3565, and Chaos Strike is 4695. Keep in mind that chaos damage is also increased by your mastery, so my mastery adds 14% to my chaos damage, increasing Chaos Strike and Eye Beam even more. Once you include the casting time saved by casting Chaos Strike, I think Chaos Strike is the better option in single target scenarios, especially with high crit rates.

Here’s an example of fighting multiple enemies at once if all CDs are available, but not a boss so not using Metamorphosis:

  1. Fel Rush
  2. Fury of the Illidari
  3. Fel Barrage (your +20% damage is up by now)
  4. Vengeful Retreat (make sure you hit all the mobs, even move forward if you have to into the stack)
  5. Fel Rush (again, make sure you hit everyone, even if you go through them and have to turn around, but not too far that you have to run back)
  6. Eye Beam and Blade Dance (I honestly don't know which order is optimal, probably doesn't matter too much as long as you do both, I just press my MultiHavoc macro)
  7. DPS more or less like normal, use SingleHavoc until Blade Dance is up again, then use that, avoid using Fel Rush except if you have just used Vengeful Retreat OR if you can do it into something just behind the mob that will stop you (such as a wall... little trick!) because you don't want to be way out of position, and finish the mob using MultiHavoc when Blade Dance/Eye Beam is available, SingleHavoc if they are not and you have fury to spend, and using Fel Barrage/Fury of the Illidari as advised if the fight is long enough

On a boss it would change a little by throwing in Metamorphosis after you Fel Rush the second time instead of Blade Dance/Eye Beam, because chances are you’re not fighting multiple targets. You can still use those two abilities after you morph if you’re fighting multiple targets of course.

As you’ll read over and over, no macro will replace quality playing. If you suck without macros, you’re going to suck with macros, but if you understand how to play and when to use abilities and why, macros will make you even stronger.

Keep in mind, this is with 7.0.3. With the patch coming tomorrow, my macros might change a little bit. Yesterday I downed a couple bosses in EN with a different build and thus had to use different macros, but they are just modified versions of what I’ve posted today using the same principles. I also have started using Vengeance a lot for tanking and questing, so I can post those macros if there’s interest.

Hope this helps!

Is this a troll post? I look at your macros and then I look at your logs and they totally do not match up. You are using Fel Barrage in the logs and nowhere in this does it list Fel Barrage at all. You also talk about momentum and are specced in Nemesis…

You list “Talents: 2111311” in both macros but aren’t even using those yourself…Bloodlet is one of the highest and best choices by far for DH and you list Felblade as the talent choice for this macro. Nowhere in this post do you speak of Nemesis.

I appreciate this long write up as I am sure others do…but it’s rather misleading.

You must read further young padawan!!

Here’s an example of fighting multiple enemies at once if all CDs are available, but not a boss so not using Metamorphosis:

Fel Rush
Fury of the Illidari
Fel Barrage (your +20% damage is up by now)
Vengeful Retreat (make sure you hit all the mobs, even move forward if you have to into the stack)
Fel Rush (again, make sure you hit everyone, even if you go through them and have to turn around, but not too far that you have to run back)
Eye Beam and Blade Dance (I honestly don’t know which order is optimal, probably doesn’t matter too much as long as you do both, I just press my MultiHavoc macro)
DPS more or less like normal, use SingleHavoc until Blade Dance is up again, then use that, avoid using Fel Rush except if you have just used Vengeful Retreat OR if you can do it into something just behind the mob that will stop you (such as a wall… little trick!) because you don’t want to be way out of position, and finish the mob using MultiHavoc when Blade Dance/Eye Beam is available, SingleHavoc if they are not and you have fury to spend, and using Fel Barrage/Fury of the Illidari as advised if the fight is long e

Out of the 3-4 macroes ive tried from this forum, this is actually the best ive tried.

Thanks for this ! (too bad you havent been active 1 month, i wish you would come back and help me make it even better)